Europe's hottest startups 2015: Berlin

This article was first published in the September 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content bysubscribing online

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It's impossible to write about the Berlin startup scene without mentioning Rocket Internet. The company-building-machine created by three brothers -- Oliver, Marc and Alexander Samwer -- had a €6.5 billion (£4.6bn) initial public offering in October 2014, one of the largest in Europe. In May 2015, it reported that its loan portfolio value had risen by €2 billion since the IPO. Its influence in the Berlin digital community is striking. Out of the startups on our Berlin list, Rocket has invested in two (Delivery Hero and HelloFresh) and at least two of the founding teams profiled include former Rocket executives in their teams (NUMBER26 and GoButler). "The success of Rocket has increased the relevance of the Berlin ecosystem," says Sebastian Esser, a former journalist, conference organiser and now CEO of Home eat Home. Yet despite the rising international interest in Berlin-based startups among venture capitalists, the city is still attracting only limited investment from the US and London. "When big cheques get written, it tends to be to non-German firms in 99.9 per cent of all instances," says Philipp Hartmann, vice-president, product at SavingGlobal.

NUMBER26

Unter den Linden 26, Berlin 10117

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NUMBER26 is a bank built for smartphones. "Other banking products are not really connected to digital natives," says Valentin Stalf, CEO and co-founder. It launched in January. "Banks have a hard time figuring out how to build digital products. We're rethinking the whole process, from signing up to customer experience. We place mobile at the core and everything works in real time." Stalf is planning to incorporate features including "smart personal financial management" and fraud detection. "We can compare the geolocation of smartphones with the location of transactions and block a fraudulent transaction before it actually happens," he says. In April, NUMBER26 raised €10m (£7m) from Valar Ventures, a VC firm backed by Peter Thiel, along with Daniel S Aegerter, Earlybird and Redalpine.

glispa

Sophienstrasse 21a, Berlin 10178

In March 2015, mobile advertising startup glispa raised $77m (£49m) from UK-based Market Tech Holdings. Founded by Gary Lin in 2008, glispa launches marketing campaigns for mobile and online apps. It serves 400 billion monthly ad impressions and claims it is adding six million new customers a month. Clients include Wooga, King, Kaspersky Lab and Deezer.

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Europe's hottest startups 2016: Berlin

ByPauline Bock

Delivery Hero

Mohrenstrasse 60, Berlin 10117

In 2014, this hungry online-food startup gobbled up HelloFood, a South American competitor, and in March 2015, it swallowed Talabat.com, a food delivery firm in Kuwait. It works with more than 200,000 restaurants in 34 countries. In February 2015, Rocket Internet acquired 30 per cent for €496m. A $110m pre-IPO funding round in June gives it a $3.1bn valuation.

HelloFresh

Saarbrücker Strasse 37a, Berlin 10405

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Founded in 2011 by Dominik Richter, Thomas Griesel and Jessica Nilsson, HelloFresh delivers more than four million weekly meal-kits (including a veggie option) to 280.000 customers in Germany, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Australia. In February 2015, Rocket Internet and Insight Venture Partners led a €110m funding round.

Outfittery

Leuschnerdamm 31, Berlin 10999

Founded in 2012 by Anna Alex, Julia Bösch and Tobias Nendel, Outfittery curates clothes shopping for men. The company employs around 80 stylists who personalise the online shopping experience for its 200,000-plus customers. So far, they have raised €20 million, with an investment round in March 2015 that included Mangrove Capital Partners.

Clue

BioWink GmbH, Adalbertstrasse 7-8, Berlin 10999

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ByJames Temperton

Clue is an app that enables the tracking of menstrual cycles. By inputting data relating to periods, symptoms, mood and sexual activity, Clue can predict a woman's next period and when she is most fertile. Founded by Copenhagen-born Ida Tin, it was the number-one app in 28 countries in Apple's Health & Fitness category in 2014. It has raised $3.3m.

EyeEm

Kohlfurter Strasse 41/43, Berlin 10999

Founded in 2010 -- after CEO Florian Meissner was mugged for his camera equipment -- this platform for smartphone photography has evolved into a global picture agency with ties to Mercedes-Benz, Getty Images and the Huffington Post. It claims 13m photographers in 150 countries, and raised $18m in April during a series B funding round.

Blacklane

Feurigstr. 59 10827 Berlin

Named Germany's fastest growing tech startup by the European Tech5 Awards, this professional driver app operates in more than 180 cities in 50 countries. Blacklane uses reverse Dutch auctions: a fixed ride fare for passengers is auctioned to the drivers, rising until the first driver agrees to buy it. Founded by Jens Wohltorf and Frank Steuer in 2011, it has raised $22.5 million.

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Onefootball

Greifswalder Str. 212, Berlin 10405

Onefootball for iOS, Android and Windows provides live match updates from more than 100 leagues to more than 20 million users, making it the world's most popular soccer app. The startup has raised $20.1 million from Union Square Ventures and EarlyBird Venture Capital. It is currently working on projects with Microsoft and Twitter.

GoButler

Stralauer Allee 9, Berlin 10245

Need to book a flight? Snag a table at a restaurant? GoButler offers a free, 24/7 SMS-based assistant service. Co-founded by Navid Hadzaad, previously MD at Rocket Internet's ZipJet, GoButler was launched in February 2015. Three weeks later it was available in five countries and its assistants had processed more than 300,000 requests.

This article was first published in the September 2015 issue of WIRED magazine